Aquarium geoncide

Question
It has happened twice now. The first time we had some nice goldfish that had been around for a while (we inherited the aquarium when some friends moved). My wife brought some fish home from the store, and within a week all of the fish were dead. We got some replacement fish, which seemed to be doing fine. We had some pleckos, two silver dollars, and a beta. All seemed active and healthy. My wife bought more pleckos, a grommie, and a few other small fish. Again, within a week all of the fish are dead except for one of the silver dollars, and the beta who seems to have some kind of palsy because it doesn,t swim well anymore. We enjoy having the aquarium but the bums us out when all of the fish die, and there seems to be a correlation to adding new fish from the store (local Petsmart) Thanks KLK

Answer
Sounds like a case of toxic water... take some water down to the aquarium and ask them to test it.  Let me know what the results are... in the meantime I would give the tank a good cleaning including the gravel... gravel vacuum is a great tool that will save your fish's lives, also add some aquarium salt to your tank and slowly raise the temperature to 78-82 degrees.  Let me know what the chemical values were from the water test... and PLEASE do not let them talk you into all of those chemicals you need to add to your water to make the tank healthy...

Your shopping list should be:

Gravel vacuum  ($12)
aquarium salt  ($3-$5)
medication called "General Cure" (under $10)

Just let me know what the chemical values were of your water sample (before water change)... then I will know how to help you keep healthy fish.


Dave